Hackley students had an adventure-packed summer filled with memories, friends, and experiences that will last a lifetime. 

  Junior Ava Derby spent a portion of her summer at a sleepaway camp on the New York University campus. She enrolled in an interesting program about recorded music and the music industry overall. Ava found that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one where she met many new people and got a feel for the life of a college student. She really enjoyed her class and said that she did a lot of interactive work. 

  Her favorite assignment for the program was a project where Ava and a few classmates worked on an imaginary music festival. For this project, they created a lineup, set list, and theme for the music festival. Her group decided on a beach theme and planned out all the logistics for the festival. For the program, her class took a field trip to an Alicia Keys concert at the Barclays Center in New York City. She said she really enjoyed the energy of the concert and experiencing it with her friends and peers. Another highlight of her program was her 7-Eleven slushie runs with her dorm mate. Her favorite memory was on July 11th, national 7-Eleven Day, when they got free slushies and roamed New York City.

  Senior Tommy Troso had a packed summer, filled with vacations, work, and school-related programs. Tommy spent four weeks of his summer being a student leader for the Hudson Scholars program. Hudson Scholars is a program created and run by History Teacher David Sykes to prevent “summer learning loss” for underprivileged students and to keep their brains stimulated over the summer. This is all rested in the goal of creating an easier transition for the Scholars when they return to school in the fall. 

  Tommy described the program as a lot of fun and finds the program enriching and enlightening. One highlight of his time at the program was daily prank calls made by an anonymous Hudson Scholar leader. This leader brightened everyone’s day by making harmless prank calls daily, including various characters and voices. Tommy said the favorite character that the leader played was one named Hyper, who would act frantic and jittery on the calls. The leaders used this daily ritual one day in order to celebrate a fellow leader’s birthday, Aiden Aybar. The anonymous leader prank-called a “bakery” (another leader) and demanded a cake. To the scholars’ surprise, the person on the phone was complacent and readily accepted their demand for a cake. As this happened, one of the leaders brought in a cake to celebrate Aiden Aybar’s birthday. 

  Tommy had many more experiences with desserts as he worked at Ben and Jerry’s as a shift manager. One of his highlights of the summer working at Ben and Jerry’s was when his friends came to visit him during his shift. Unfortunately, not every shift was pleasant for Tommy. 

  Tommy recounted an interesting interaction with a customer during a busy time during his shift. The customer demanded help after having an emergency with an Uber Eats order while Tommy was serving another customer. Tommy quickly helped the customer with the Uber Eats order and quickly returned it to the customer who was now infuriated. The customer scolded Tommy for “abandoning” him and “hopping around the store like a frog” and repeatedly called him a “frog”. Tommy stayed professional and didn’t take the customers’ comments or complaints to heart. Tommy now looks at this memory and laughs. 

  When Tommy wasn’t working or helping with Hudson Scholars, Tommy and his family took a three-week trip to Nantucket.  He found this trip very relaxing and enjoyable. A highlight of his trip was when his grandparents visited for a week. Tommy made many memories this summer and partook in many activities. Tommy shared that he had an amazing summer and wished he could go back.

  Senior NJ Roc-Sennett took a trip with her father to the United Kingdom in late June. She described this trip as adventure-packed, as they visited many different places and spots in the UK. During her time in London, she said that they did “stereotypical touristy activities” and went to a jazz show at a well-known jazz club in London called Ronny Scotts. 

  Another destination on their trip was Maidenhead, where they attended a party with family and friends. They spent time in Bath, where she saw architecture and explored the city. After, NJ visited some more family and headed to Cartiff, Wales to stay with her grandma and aunt. Her highlight of the trip was going to a beautiful rocky beach in downtown Cardiff. She thoroughly enjoyed the trip and loved how she was able to catch up with family and see how everything had changed since she last visited pre-pandemic. 

  NJ’s brother, freshman Pierce Roc-Sennett, went on vacation during the summer as well. A vacation he really enjoyed was in early July, when he and his family visited Newburyport, Massachusetts. They celebrated the Fourth of July with their family and had a great time. 

  Pierce loved the city of Newburyport and described it as a very cute, small, and quiet town. Pierce was shocked by the blazing sun and unrelenting heat during the first few days but quickly got used to it. For a refreshing treat, Pierce and NJ walked into town daily for delicious smoothie bowls. Pierce spent his time visiting his relatives and participating in various activities with them. 

  A fun activity they did during their trip was a croquet tournament that came with a cash prize. After Pierce returned to New York, he attended a fencing camp at Hackley prior to preseason. Pierce enjoyed spending time with the two fencing leaders Junior, Josh Lee, and Senior, Sam Sanders. 

  Freshman Sosie Lundeen went to an international school over the summer in Ashburnham, Massachusetts where she learned a lot about different cultures. The immersion program where Sosie went was a long-existing institution in the rural town. She even mentioned that her father used to work at the institution when he was younger. She described a few of the many diverse people she met, including people from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Kazakhstan. She found this experience as truly eye-opening and enlightening. 

  Sosie noted that this program helped her practice her foreign languages such as Spanish and Russian. She found it interesting to see firsthand the conflicting political views of various people from differing backgrounds. The diversity was one of the reasons she found the program a very magical place filled with people with varying opinions, beliefs, and practices. 

  An interesting way in which Sosie observed cultural differences first hand was with her friend from Saudi Arabia. This friend followed the Haram closely and could not express deep emotions visibly or make physical contact with the opposite gender. Sosie mentioned how in every group photo they took, the friend displayed a stoic expression, standing far away from the other. 

  Overall, Hackley students across all grades enjoyed a summer filled with new experiences, relaxing vacations, and humanitarian work. Although the students participated in a variety of different activities, one thing they all agreed on was that the summer went by too quickly.